Sasaki Fine Pastry

Bakery: Sasaki Fine Pastry 
Address: 3160 Steeles Ave E, Markham ON (inside J-Town) 
Website: http://j-town.ca/
Style: Japanese 
Price: $$

There is a new bakery in J-Town! I mean, the whole enclosure of shops is like 50x50m, but there are now two bakeries! I do love the Japanese mentality... *-* That being said, unlike Bakery Nakamura, where baked goods and cakes fall into a fusion between Japanese flavours and European techniques and products, Sasaki is the authentic stuff, albeit relatively small and basic: various types of mochi, custard or pudding (is that right), and sweet steam cakes. It's certainly a little less appealing to Western tastes, but I don't have Western tastes, so there. :P 

I had to try the green tea mochi ($2): flavour-packed centres of delicious quality green tea, soft and... squishy in texture; yes, it's not the most flattering way of putting it, but I meant well. A mochi, however, is like a pillow or a stress ball. Just with an invisible smile (I was almost tempted to draw one in). And flavoured filling. ^-^;; Likening these to the frozen or packaged varieties is an insult; this is the real stuff and it's good. Welcome, new kid in J-town! :) 

Rating: ***

Piekarnia Hert [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Piekarnia Hert
Address: Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego 55, Wałbrzych
Website: http://piekarniahert.pl/
Style: Polish
Price: $

This is pretty much the first bakery I spotted upon entering town and I thought I better do it, since then there would be complaints [Editor's note: I heard that!]. Little did I know that there was pretty much a bakery/pastry shop on every corner. And this one was probably not the best one to go to. Oh well.

Hert is a chain of relatively cheap, local bakeries (within the region) with more than a dozen locations. As the name states, they are a bakery, so their focus is on breads and buns, not on sweets. Still, they have a selection of classic Polish baked goods. I took the poppy seed bun and doughnut, for example. The doughnut had a rum filling and the poppy seed bun was good; the one minus in both cases was that they were too bready. I guess this is the difference between a bakery (piekarnia) and a patisserie (cukiernia)?

Rating: **1/2

La Portion Magique

Bakery: La Portion Magique
Address: 236 Boulevard Saint-Benoit O, Amqui QC
Website: http://www.laportionmagique.com/
Style: French-Canadian, Quebecois
Price: $-$$ 

I don't know what it is, but Amqui is home to some of the most bizarre bakery combinations imaginable. Take today's post for example: La Portion Magique also happens to serve takeout sushi and Thai food; they have a gourmet food shop as well. Just the thought of all three together made me want to kind of... move along, but after having gone to the bakery/microbrewery/bar a few doors down, I thought it would be nice to just turn this into a whole novelty. So as downright silly as it sounds, I avoided the sushi counter and made it right away to the small counter of baked goods, which fall right into homestyle baking: muffins, brownies, loaf cakes with a few surprises. I mean, homemade Jos-Louis -- really? Besides simple, traditional goodies, they do have some fancier cakes in a variety of sizes.

And they have these babies: maple tarts. As quintessentially local as these are, it's sad to see not that many bakeries have them. La Portion Magique had a ton, in different sizes and flavours. The small ones ($1.65; seen here plain and local blueberry) are tart shells filled with liquid yum. If you didn't know how to describe melt-in-your-mouth, this is the definition. Delectably rich, buttery yet subtle in flavour, one forkful was enough to have me hooked. This might even have to be the best thing contained in a pie shell -- yes, even the butter tart (sorry little guy). So, so good! 

I can't say anything about their sushi or spring rolls, but La Portion Magique seems to know La Potion Magique... and it contains maple syrup. :P 

Rating: ****

Sigurjónsbakarí [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Sigurjónsbakarí
Address: Hólmgarði 2, Reykjanesbær
Website: http://www.sigurjonsbakari.net/
Style: Icelandic 
Price: $$ 

And my taking over Iceland, one bakery at a time, continues onto the Reykjanes! ;) I'll admit that my brother actually did the purchasing this time around, though I had the honours of eating, ha ha... and he remarked how amazed he was that in a town as utterly dead and unpeopled as Reykjanesbær, the bakery was pretty busy and pretty stocked with all the breads and baked goods I've come to love and expect from Icelandic bakeries: kleinur, those famous giant cinnamon buns (that I was recently told aren't actually *cinnamon* buns, but just giant buns... I guess it shows how often I bought them :P) and long slabs of vínarbrauð. It was the latter I had the honour of trying.

This came in two varieties (though not sure if the chocolate variety had its own name): the traditional one with cream centre and the classic strawberry and chocolate icing down one side. Top that off rock sugar and slivered almonds. The latter two were a bit lacking on this one, except for a pool of hardened sugar that got spilled down and settled near the cream. That unexpected crunch wasn't the best sensation. The dough itself got soggy very quickly and much of the flakiness flaked off.

The chocolate version was, in a word, chocolatey. In addition to chocolate icing being slathered all over the top, this danish was stuffed with it to the point of oozing out. Rich and sweet, there was a nice amount of almonds on this one and great flaky texture -- the only thing is that this is so one for the chocoholic, and that is not me. 

This bakery falls into the good category: nothing out-of-your-way spectacular, but tasty, dependable Icelandic baked goods. This opinion might also be due to the fact that I just had four baked goods in one day for the sake of the Cake Tour... and this was not a very smart thing to do. I don't feel very good right now.... :(

Rating: ***

Boko Bakery [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Boko Bakery
Address: 280 Elgin St, Ottawa ON 
Website: (facebook) 
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$ 

Bakery changed names to "Brownloaf Bakery" - is it the same thing? I'll have to see the next time... Another stop for Ottawa! I have to say that this bakery was pretty boring in terms of its selection. They seem to specialize in decorations on icing, like shaped and brightly coloured sugar cookies, but it wasn't what I was expecting or necessarily wanted. I think the target of most products are kids and -- of course -- parents of young kids.

 Their second specialty seems to be cookies; they have a lot of them, so I thought I might as well try one, though cookies aren't my favourite bakery purchase, mostly because my mom's cookies will always be better. I took something that looked like an oatmeal raisin. It was okay, but dry. And I thought that while they were "cheap", they were expensive for a cookie.

 The long thing was a sticky almond thing. I forget what it was, but it was basically just almonds stuck together with like a sweet toffee/caramel. It was very sticky but wasn't bad.

Lastly was a free sample of their Japanese cheesecake. It was small so I zoomed in to make it look like a slice. Only sold whole. $9 for whole cake. The cheesecake was good (definitely the best cheesecake you will find in Ottawa, without a doubt), but not the best I've had (I also kind of feel that Japanese cheesecake is getting way too hyped [Editor's note: I have to say I agree with this comment]). Overall this bakery was alright; I was hoping for a little more, but the cheesecake saved the day.

Rating: **

Cukiernia Świerczyńscy [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Cukiernia K. M. Świerczyńscy
Address: Główna 10A, Wałbrzych
Website: http://www.swierczynscy.pl/
Style: Polish
Price: $$ 

With the pink bubble letters and neon pink highlights, this doesn't make me think of a bakery. More like a casino or something. Not sure why. I don't think the two men looking like guards who got into my picture helped either....

Anyways, this is a pastry shop that turned out to be not that big on the inside, but they had a good selection of cakes, ice cream, and baked goods. They were also advertising that they won some sort of world championship of pastry chefs once. Is this true?

 I picked out two danish-style baked goods with fruit in the middle: one with red currant and the other with strawberries. I don't know why, but they didn't look typically Polish. Still, they were very good: good dough texture, good amount of real fruit. Wasn't dry or too doughy. The red currant, more unusual of the two, at least for me, was the better of the two. 

Rating: ***1/2

Boulangerie Patisserie La Mie Véritable

Bakery: Boulangerie Patisserie La Mie Véritable
Address: 578 Boulevard Perron, Carleton, QC
Website: n/a
Style: French
Price: $$ 

Continuing along the route through Gaspesie, my first stop of the day was this rather cute and hectic bakery in the heart of Carleton-sur-Mer. That's right: first thing in the morning, it's off to the bakery! :P This place seems to be run by a group of young people that look quite passionate about baking; I mean, the speed at which they were bolting to and fro, feeding bread to the oven or rolling out dough was pretty phenomenal and I *always* appreciate going into a bakery where you can both see the action and you know that fresh items are baked throughout the day. It is so much more real than bakeries that seem to exude a staleness that leaves you wondering when everything was baked! 

 Anyways, putting that aside, La Mie Véritable had fresh baked goods. The layout of their baked goods is a little hodgepodge and I felt a little lost going back and forth, being asked for my order by three different people and then having two customers just butt in front of me. -__- I was in there longer than anticipated, but I came out with a super fresh chausson aux pommes ($2.95): flaky, buttery dough filled with a warm apple sauce that bursts from the seams. Good stuff and a classic done right.

Rating: *** 

Restaurant Roklubben [Mimi's World Tour]

It's my 500th review! Let's celebrate with doughnut numbers!!!! ^-^ Alright, maybe it's a pretty pathetic reward for scouring the somewhat-world for 500 bakeries and treat makers in a matter of six years, but we need something. Not to mention that the 500th review has to be someplace special; that it had to be from my Icelandic series of bakeries still needing to be reviewed seemed a matter of course until I thought: no, wait! it might just have to be my coolest (both literally and figuratively, oddly enough) review to date! You don't get a cake tour from Greenland every day, at least not until I go there myself, but even then I would be limited to a single location unless I somehow find a bazillion dollars I don't know what to do with.... Anyways, here's to 500 reviews and 500 more! I've only touched the very tip of the iceberg, after all! ;P

Bakery: Restaurant Roklubben 
Address: Shore of Lake Ferguson, Kangerlussuaq
Website: http://wogac.com/restaurant
Style: Greenlandic 
Price: $$-$$$ 

While in Iceland, a good friend of mine -- and now the MOST AMAZING Cake Tour accomplice EVER -- went on a trip to Greenland and not only had a cake for the sake of the Cake Tour (we'll just write it like that, even though that is so not true. Cake just had to be had; no explanation or excuse was or is ever needed), but brought ME back a slice. From Greenland. I ATE a cake from GREENLAND! I was in heaven and heaven was a giant island made of ice and I was so grateful I thought I would just squeal and cry all at the same time. Just thinking about it puts in me in a state of ecstatic shock. I am SO happy!! Thank you, a million times "takk" for this cake tour! :)

 Given the size of Kangerlussuaq and its remoteness, the fact that there is no bakery came as absolutely no surprise. Actually, I checked the population and thought that it would be impossible and all my dreams of Greenlandic cakedom went down the drain. I had no hopes whatsoever.

However, there came one pleasant surprise courtesy of Restaurant Roklubben, a restaurant around 5km from town which makes their own cakes, namely what they call a crowberry pie (78kr)! Cake. Local berries. Greenland. It could have been gross and I would have given them bonus points just for those three together. Except the cake was insanely good, even after having been smushed on the plane ride back. It was the kind of cake I would take over a creamy torte any day: moist buttery sponge cake filled with slightly tart, super flavourful crowberries served with a dollop of whipped cream (I'm enclosing the original presentation with fruit salad and garnish along with my friend's surprise recreation/reconstruction). Mmmmm... I could have eaten the whole pan. Simple, so simple, and yet incredibly delicious.

Until we eat again, Greenland~! :)

Rating: ****

Romeo & Juliet's

Bakery: Romeo & Juliet's Caffe & Bakery 
Address: 1292 Hertel Ave., Buffalo NY
Website: http://www.rjcaffe.com/
Style: Italian 
Price: $$ 

This is what I would call the most authentically Italian bakery in the Buffalo area (they have four locations), although they, like a great many Italian "bakeries", seem to meddle in a bit of everything, from homemade pasta to pizza to antipasti to sweets. And of course they cater -- how could they not? ;) Even if this is the case, gone are the oversized pastries and leaning towers of tasteless cream and instead you have classic treats.

 And where there are classic treats, there are cannoli, smaller and thin-shelled (one sampler wanted to point that out, it being his favourite type) with good cream and crispy exterior: a standard cannolo that was good compared to nearby bakeries, but not exceptional on its own. It would be nice to do a taste test with a whole bunch of cannoli like I did with zeppole (oh yeah, that was a whole lot of fun! *-*)

Similarly, there was the sfogliatella, the multi-layered pastry that had good texture and taste, though at the same time I'll admit it's not my favourite Italian pastry by a long shot. Nevertheless, after countless very disappointing, sometimes downright disgusting visits to Italian bakeries in Western NY, here's a solid contender for one of the best.

Rating: ***

Kurtoszkołacz [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Kurtoszkołacz
Address: Square in front of city hall, Wrocław
Website: n/a
Style: Hungarian 
Price: $$ 

I only had this because my uncle bought these chimney cakes, and I thought I might as well do a cake tour of it; it's better than nothing. 

I always wanted to try Hungarian chimney cakes, which are baked on wooden rods over an open fire, or at least that's how it is traditionally. Now they probably just have rotisserie ovens. I kind of found out later that they're actually not that exciting.

This little wooden hut that can't really be called a shop seems to have more flavours, but my uncle picked out one sugar and one cinnamon. I learned he doesn't have very good taste overall....

Anyways, one was rubbed in sugar and the other in cinnamon. I was thinking that cinnamon would be better because of the spice, but turned out I liked sugar the best. Both, however, were pretty blah and boring. Definitely nothing special. If I took this again, I would choose a more exciting flavour.

Rating: ** 

Ferme Bourdages Tradition

Bakery: Ferme Bourdages Tradition
Address: 255 Avenue du Viaduc, Saint-Siméon-de-Bonaventure
Website: http://www.fermebourdages.com/
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$$

The real reason we pulled over at this strawberry farm was the advertisement for strawberry wine and it was only while waiting to pay that I noticed the tray of strawberry danishes by the cash. Nice! ^-^ I felt like a winner there. While they also had pies and cookies (with strawberry, of course), the prices, like for the baskets of strawberries, were quite staggering and a drawback. You can't really expect cheaper prices with the wine, but everything was so... expensive!

Nonetheless, the strawberry danish ($3.95) was irresistible with its layers of flaky dough with a centre of some sort of cheesy base and fresh, local strawberries on top, and possibly some icing drizzled on top of that (at the very least it looks like something like that on the photo); I only remember it being a bit of a mess. It was a good thing that there were enough strawberries on it and not just plopped rather dryly in the middle, but the filling was rather heavy for the amount of dough and made a heavy, unwieldy handful. The hint of cream cheese in that pudding-like filling wasn't exactly my thing, something between a soft cheesecake and sweet cheese baked goods that made the deliciousness of strawberries take second place. Tasty, but over-the-top. 

Rating: **1/2

When the reviewer becomes the reviewed....

Taking a small break from my barrage of local and not so local reviews, I bring you a review that was done of my own humble cake by a fellow cake lover and blogger. ^^

Ooh, I am so proud of not only the feedback, but of myself for having my signature recipe turn out successfully more than once, even with the changing of a few key variables (especially the fact I couldn't find a cake pan in the guesthouse kitchen and had to use a pot). Great job Mimi, ha ha ha!!

A link to the post can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1781613148753184&id=1400234216891081

Köku Kompaníið [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Köku Kompaníið
Address: Lækjargötu 4, Reykjavík 
Website: n/a 
Style: Icelandic 
Price: $$

Having taken over (and as of last time I walked past it, not yet removed the signs from the previous business) the downtown location of Kornið, Köku Kompaníið - Cake Company is the new guy in town along with another company (the divine Brauð & Co. -- review to come). Bakeries closing, bakeries opening; it's some light at the end of an otherwise dismal tunnel. Anything to detract business from my enemies: Dunkin Donuts. *evil, very evil glare*

Nonetheless, this bakery claims that they're an "artisan boulangerie - patisserie", but I hate to say that there isn't that much to differentiate them from any other standard Icelandic bakery, both with bread and with the good stuff. The fact that they just acquired the previous bakery as-is heightens the impression that nothing has changed. That being said, their display window has macarons in what must be black sesame (!?), but I was unable to find anything inside indicating they had them for sale. Same goes for the eponymous cake. Nothing was seen and nothing was advertised... where are the cakes? That is the question.

Silliness aside, I grabbed myself a classic danish (between 300-400kr), mostly because it was the only thing available (that day?) with flaky dough. I didn't want any doughy snuður or obviously nothing savoury, so I didn't have much choice. Not that I'm complaining. :P Perhaps it wasn't as rustic as some of the higher-end bakeries tout, but it was wonderfully flaky and multi-layered as it should be. Delicious dough, nice custard middle with slivered almonds and a delicate swish of icing. Would have liked eating less plain dough, but perfect texture and great taste from the new bakery in town.

Rating: ***

Soula's Tea Garden

Bakery: Soula's Tea Garden
Address: 260 George St, Cobourg ON
Website: http://www.soulasteagarden.ca/
Style: Greek 
Price: $$

It doesn't happen often, but there are times when the Cake Tour stumbles onto something undeniably unique, maybe even lovingly random. Today, we feature Soula's. ;) Soula's is a tea house on overdrive: in addition to loose leaf teas that you can enjoy there or buy for home use, there's an art gallery, random gifts, lunches, locally made preserves -- and Greek pastries. It would be interesting to even count how many times "Greek pastries" appears on their website, because, after all, the perfect compliment to tea is.. Greek pastries. Who knew? Of course I won't disagree with that! :D

Nonetheless, this very cute shop with a little bit of almost everything has homemade Greek pastries and they seem insanely proud of that fact. Even the man in-store began charting the history of the family baklava recipe. It's so refreshing to find genuine people passionate about what they sell! Nonetheless, this famous baklava ($2.25, taxes included -- if I didn't confuse the price with something else) was a great example of classic Greek baklava: a triangle of honey-soaked flaky dough that was filled with nuts. One baklava connoisseur said it could have been a little more soaking in that good stuff or bigger even (naturally), but it was very good nonetheless. Just more proof that, indeed, the best baklava is the Greek kind, hands down. Whether or not the recipe passed down from generation to generation is required is up to interpretation. :P

Rating: ***

Kawiarnia-Cukiernia Spokojna [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Kawiarnia-Cukiernia Spokojna 
Address: Konstytucji 3 Maja 55A, Karpacz
Website: http://cukiernia-krzystoszek.pl/
Style: Polish
Price: $$ 

We ended up going to Karpacz, a touristy town in southwest Poland, right by the Czech border, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try more bakeries. This one with the ice cream cone is a cafe that sells mostly homemade cakes and ice cream. 

I picked out two from them: a honey cake and an apple cake. The honey cake was dry and didn't have enough honey to make the dough more moist. It wasn't the best I've had, but it was OK.

The apple cake: normally, I'm not that big a fan of these gelatin apple cakes, but this was very good: really good apple filling and I also liked the dough and icing around it. I ate it last meaning I liked it better than the honey cake.

A good stop in the region, but probably not one of my tour highlights overall.

Rating: ***